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All Settled In
We love seeing the journey of our Rangitahi families, as they design and build their dream homes. But how is it once they have moved in and are going forth with their everyday lives on the peninsula? We have revisited the Boer family to hear all about their home and lifestyle now that they are well and truly settled into their beautiful house with water views, in Stage One of the development: The Village.
Heather and Seb, well done on the completion of your home in Rangitahi. It was a long time coming, and a real dream in the making! You have had time to settle into your beautiful new home and we would love to know how it is for you as a family to be living in Rangitahi?
We absolutely love it! After purchasing our section in late 2016 we waited a long time to get here, but it was worth the wait. Our kids love it and it's an easy walk/drive to school. We all enjoy exploring the local area and swimming and kayaking at high tide, and doing the walks around Rangitahi. We enjoy the social aspect of catching up with local friends, and it's safe for the kids to visit their local friends and play all around the neighbourhood!
I work from home, which is great and Seb finds it an easy commute into Hamilton to work daily.
Tell us about the special features of your home that you absolutely love. Were these planned well in advance, or did ideas come to you along the way which you were able to implement at short notice?
We always planned our timber feature wall in the lounge, it was planned well in advance. We then matched the breakfast bar to tie it in together and we are so happy with how they both turned out. We also planned the high ceilings and different ceiling angles and love how light it makes it, and more interesting to the eye.
We had planned all the windows and doors in the dining room and lounge to make the most of our amazing view.
The large deck was always part of the plan, but we ended up making it bigger towards the end, as we realised it wouldn't have been big enough from what was on the plans.
We see providers from all over coming to work on building projects in Rangitahi. Did you choose to work with local trades or with companies from the wider Waikato region?
We worked with A1 Waikato, and worked with their architect to do the plans. They used a mixture of local builders and other trades from Hamilton.
Some local people that we used were Protech Plumbing, Cambell Forlong (for extra building and our landscaping), Raglan Curtains & Blinds and Raglan Landscape Supplies.
Building projects come with highs and lows... were there aspects of the building and planning which you particularly enjoyed? And what challenges did you face which may influence the way you would build in the future?
We loved the planning stage, and watching the house come together on paper, then starting to take shape in reality.
The frustrating elements were probably what most people experience, especially building through covid - constant delays, price increases, supply challenges… it tested our patience for sure! But once you move in you forget all about the challenges.
DIY projects are appealing to lots of New Zealand families. Being a new build, were there any areas which you were able to take on yourselves?
Seb, Campbell and my Dad built our stunning deck! They worked very hard but we are so happy with it, and it is such a feature of our home, we spend so much time there.
We also did lots of painting of retaining walls and baseboards.
Local suppliers:
Are you ready to build your own dream family home? See our current sections available for sale.
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